Bay Farm Island - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bay Farm Island is a district in the city of Alameda, California

Alameda, California

Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

, though it is separated from the rest of the city by an estuary. It has a zip code of 94502. The location was originally an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

in San Francisco Bay, but due to landfill

Landfill (disambiguation)

Landfill usually refers to a waste dump.Landfill may also refer to:*Land reclamation*Landfill , a character in the Transformers toy line...

it has become a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

and is now connected to the mainland of Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

and Oakland International Airport

Oakland International Airport

Oakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...

. Marshes and other areas of the island were also reclaimed by landfill.

Prior to 20th century development, Bay Farm Island was farmland with asparagus

Asparagus

Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...

being the principal crop, thus it was also known as "Asparagus Island". In addition, the area was the site of large oyster

Oyster

The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....

beds which regularly supplied restaurants in nearby San Francisco.

Today, Bay Farm Island is home to the 36-hole Chuck Corica Golf Complex, the Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

headquarters, office and retail complexes, and several housing developments. There is a chain of lagoons as well as several community parks including Shoreline Park, which offers stunning views of the San Francisco skyline and the surrounding bay. A greenbelt is also present which encompasses the perimeter of the peninsula. The Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry

Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry

Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry is a public transportation service that uses a ferry and operates in Alameda, California and San Francisco, California. Providing weekday rush-hour service, the ferry runs from Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal in Alameda's Bay Farm Island area to the Ferry Building in San...

provides weekday rush-hour ferry service between Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal on Bay Farm Island to the Ferry Building (Gate E) in San Francisco.

A portion of Bay Farm Island is considered "Harbor Bay Isle", generally bounded to the north and east portion of the island by Island Drive and Mecartney Drive. Harbor Bay Isle is a collective of community homeowner's associations serving the Bay Colony, Bay Isle Pointe, Bayview Harbor, Baywood Village, Brittany Bay, Brittany Harbor, Cantamar, Centre Court, Clipper Cove, Columbia, Costa Brava, Freeport, Harbor Pointe, Headlands, Lantern Bay, Pelican Bay, Promontory, Sandpiper Cove, Seastrand, and Woodbridge developments. Harbor Bay Isle excludes the three southern townhome developments, Islandia, Casitas, and Garden Isle, as well as the single-family homes to the east of Island Drive. Harbor Bay Isle also maintains private security patrols for its various developments.

There are two elementary schools on Bay Farm Island: Bay Farm Elementary and Amelia Earhart Elementary, the latter is named for aviatrix Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...

who started many of her flights from the nearby Oakland Airport.

Noteworthy figures hailing from Bay Farm Island include:

Chris Isaak

Chris Isaak

Christopher Joseph "Chris" Isaak is an American rock musician and occasional actor.-Early life:Isaak was born in Stockton, California, the son of Dorothy , a potato chip factory worker, and Joe Isaak, a forklift driver. Isaak's mother is Italian American, originating from Genoa...

, recording artist.

David Segui

David Segui

David Vincent Segui, is a Cuban-American former Major League Baseball first baseman. Segui played collegiate baseball for Louisiana Tech University and Kansas City Kansas Community College. During a 15-year baseball career, he played with the Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets, Montreal Expos,...

, former MLB first baseman.

Public transit

AC Transit

AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...

provides local bus service in addition to express commuter "Transbay" service to the Transbay Terminal

San Francisco Transbay Terminal

San Francisco Transbay Transit Terminal, or simply Transbay Terminal, was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, USA, located roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2nd Street...

in Downtown San Francisco. The Harbor Bay Ferry

Alameda Harbor Bay Ferry

provides commuter (rush hour) service to the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Public transit

See also